*** Police yesterday released a picture (above) of a suspect they are hunting in the fatal stabbing of an Upper West Side man.

Javier Garvas, 29, also known as Raul Galvez, allegedly stabbed Rafael Vargas, 55, in the head and neck in the victim’s Amsterdam Avenue apartment and then fled, authorities said. His motive was not known, cops said.

*** Two Columbia University students were arrested on hate crime charges for scrawling offensive graffiti on a campus wall, authorities said yesterday.

Matthew Brown, 20, and Stephen Searles, 19, were charged with defacing a wall in Ruggles Hall dormitory around 8 p.m. Thursday. They were arraigned on charges of criminal mischief as a hate crime.

*** A man was crushed to death by a subway train as he walked across tracks inside a Harlem subway station yesterday, police said.

The man, who was not identified, was hit on the northbound tracks of the No. 2 train at the 116th and Lenox Avenue station at 1:30 p.m.

*** An accused thief who escaped from Manhattan’s Criminal Court building was caught yesterday shoplifting at a Columbus Circle pharmacy, police said.

Levy Whaley, 38, was arrested at a Duane Reade at 3 p.m. He had bolted from a room behind the judge’s bench at 100 Centre St. around 7 a.m. Sunday. Whaley, who was not handcuffed at the time, had been busted on petit-larceny charges by Port Authority cops.

*** Two burglars were arrested after they broke into a Chelsea home, authorities said yesterday.

Jaquan Carnegie, 17, and Sixtus Udeke, 25, allegedly used a crowbar, bolt cutters and a tire iron to break the locks on the door of the third-floor residence at West 26th Street near Sixth Avenue at about 2:25 a.m. Monday.

Police, responding to a neighbor’s call, arrested both suspects, who were charged with burglary, criminal mischief and possession of burglar’s tools.

*** A 39-year-old woman died in an apparent suicide after she plunged seven stories from a window of a building at West 69th Street near Columbus Avenue, at about 8 a.m. yesterday, authorities said.

BROOKLYN

*** A pimp and his girlfriend were arrested after they swiped a woman’s wedding rings and later beat her with a broomstick, cops said yesterday.

The incident began at about 7:30 p.m. Sunday, in the Cypress Hills apartment of Joseph Harrison, 26, police sources said.

A woman who came to the apartment noticed that Harrison’s girlfriend, Ciara Clarke, 20, was wearing the woman’s wedding rings, which were apparently stolen from a bag she had left there previously. Harrison demanded $1,000 for the rings, but the woman refused to pay, sources said.

Harrison allegedly upped the price to $2,000 on Tuesday, when he and Clarke visited the woman at her Barbey Street apartment. Clarke grabbed a broomstick and allegedly hit the hooker in the face.

The woman called her cellphone company and told the operator what was happening. The operator contacted police.

Harrison and Clarke were arrested and charged with assault, menacing and petit larceny.

*** Two teens were arrested for swiping an iPod from a worker’s jacket in a Midwood ice-cream shop and then later robbing a worker of $250, authorities said yesterday.

Bujar Hakiqi, 19, and Alex Isapov, 18, were busted Tuesday on charges of menacing and robbery over the incident that took place about 11 p.m. Monday at a Carvel store at Kings Highway near East 18th Street, police sources said.

The victim, who knew the suspects from the neighborhood, called police, who arrested the pair.

*** An assailant brandishing a piece of wood beat an elderly man to death on a Crown Heights street, police said yesterday.

The unidentified suspect got into a heated argument with the 63-year-old man at Classon Avenue and Pacific Street at about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, cops said.

The victim, whose name was not immediately released, was rushed to Interfaith Hospital, where he died. It was not immediately clear what sparked the dispute.

*** A city Department of Education psychologist was arrested for illegally using a student’s MetroCard to pay a fare at a Fort Greene subway station, cops said yesterday.

Emile Scharf, 53, who works for PS 32 in Brooklyn, was charged with theft of service after he was caught using the MetroCard in the Dekalb Avenue Station at about 6:45 p.m. Tuesday, police said.

STATEN ISLAND

*** A woman was arrested after a security guard caught her shoplifting in an Arlington department store, authorities said yesterday.

Marie Fiore, 48, allegedly swiped blouses and jackets from a rack and stuffed them into a shopping bag in the Kohl’s store at 2239 Forest Ave. at about 3:15 p.m. Tuesday.

She was charged with petit-larceny and criminal possession of stolen property.

QUEENS

*** A transit worker was arrested yesterday for allegedly asking a teenage boy to engage in sex for $100, police said.

Terry Hope, 36, was arrested at his Queens apartment after cops investigated the 16-year-old’s complaint that Hope propositioned him as he walked home on Guy R. Brewer Boulevard in Jamaica on Nov. 30.

*** A homeless man died yesterday after he was found unconscious on an Ozone Park street, police said.

The 29-year-old man was unresponsive when he was discovered at about 11:20 a.m. at 101st Avenue and Lefferts Boulevard.

He was taken to Jamaica hospital, where he was pronounced dead. jamie.schram@nypost.com